June 2010 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

"UTAH Starwatch" Book
by Ray Druian 21 Jun '10

21 Jun '10

I was just at the Borders on Winchester near State in Murray and they had about a dozen copies of "UTAH Starwatch" at $3.95 each. It may be an imperfect book but it has a lot of pretty sky pictures and the author's autograph for a pretty reasonable price. It's in the Local Interest section. Thanx, B.Ray Kiss a malamute today!

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Observing Monday June 14 2010
by Jay Eads 21 Jun '10

21 Jun '10

I have the Clark/Bogdan refractor scheduled for Monday, June 4th, 2010 (forecast is looking outstanding according to the Clear Sky Clock Stansbury Park ClearSky Clock <http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/SPOC2UTkey.html?1> and AccuWeather Tooele Astronomy Forecast <http://www.accuweather.com/us/ut/tooele/84074/outdoor-astronomy.asp>); looks to be shaping up to be a great night. With me will be a friend, Steve Coe, author, amateur astronomer, and a long-time, prominent member of the Saguaro Astronomy Club in Phoenix, AZ. Steve has written two books for Springer publishing. The first, *Deep Sky Observing: The Astronomical Tourist*, and the second, *Nebulae and How to Observe Them*. He has also written several articles for *Astronomy* magazine and a monthly column for the Cloudy Nights website, among a regular column for Amateur Astronomy. The focus will be on the planets that are visible (Venus, Mars, Saturn), some doubles that Steve is pulling from the Saguaro database and some globular clusters. So if you want to come out and have a look feel free to drop by or bring a scope and set up that works too. Jay

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NGC-5907
by Patrick Wiggins 21 Jun '10

21 Jun '10

For those of you who enjoy image processing I've posted a ZIP file containing 30 1 minute raw exposures of NGC-5907 I took this morning. Also included are the master dark and master flat needed to reduce the raw images. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/NCC5907.ZIP Clear skies, patrick

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Finally and thanks
by Patrick Wiggins 20 Jun '10

20 Jun '10

With all of the weird weather we've been having this year causing havoc with so many of the public star parties I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to pull off a decent public star party. But it finally happened tonight at SPOC. This despite strong winds and clouds all afternoon. But by sunset the clouds had gone and the wind had dwindled to nothing more than a gentle, warm breeze. And thanks to Rodger's PR efforts we had more public turn out than I think to any other star party this year. All in all a very satisfying event. So "finally" we got a good night and "thanks" to all the many SLASers who showed up and helped out. patrick

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CGEM (Was: Atlas or CGEM?)
by Chuck Hards 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

It's like Christmas morning here! More observations: In the future, I will definitely make my own dovetail bars. The Losmandy bar will be easy to make from plate aluminum, using only a table saw. I'm glad I bought the smaller counterweight. The stock 17-lb. weight is far too heavy for the small refractors. The 11-lb. is just right. The polarscope fits, but that reticle seems like a joke. I'll try it on the weekend, weather permitting. Anybody have any comments on the Celestron polar scope in use? The cord on the control box is far too short. Plugged-in, the hand control won't even sit in it's cradle on the tripod leg. I'm glad I ordered the extension cable from Astrophotography Tonight. The knob upgrade is a mixed review. The azimuth knobs are a definite improvement. The saddle lock knobs don't seem to be quite long enough. I'll futz with them a bit, and can probably swap out a new SS threaded portion on my own, and keep that nifty, knurled-aluminum, orange-anodized knob. I still haven't powered it up. Taking the GPS unit out of the box now. I like the Autoguider port. No laptop needed to use an autoguider with this mount. Did I say it's big? I'm still trying to absorb the size of this mount.

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Hayabusa return video (also, nice prominence)
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

Video of this morning's recovery of the Japanese Hayabusa space probe. The audio is in Japanese but video is impressive, showing the "mother ship" burning up and the sample return capsule pressing on to a safe landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IAX9Hsloq4 Also it's finally stopped raining (so maybe I wont need to build an arc) so I got in some nice HA views of the Sun a few minutes ago. There's a very nice "tree-like" prominence. No sunspots to speak of, just a small cluster about to disappear over the limb. patrick

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So close I can taste it.
by Dale Wilson 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

Just a few more details and this is up and running. Once again the rain has kept me from doing much on the outside. Patrick, I'm just about ready for the aerial shot. Let's go flying. Dale

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oops
by Dale Wilson 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

I missed the link http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3446

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] CGEM (Was: Atlas or CGEM?)
by Chuck Hards 13 Jun '10

13 Jun '10

Thanks, Rob, I'll stick with the GSO on the 100mm ED. That bit of info is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I'm going to do the retrofit on my 80mm ED, as well. On 5/27/10, Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: > Chuck > > > My GSO focuser on my 80mm Orion is a fine unit, the 2 speed focuser > w/ my Williams 80mm sticks here and there, mostly in cold weather. > I've taken it apart, cleaned and adjusted the focuser and still some > places it will not draw out. I think you are fine w/ the GSO plus > all Williams repairs are now thru Taiwan.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Going to Hellfire 2010
by Daniel Holmes 12 Jun '10

12 Jun '10

Didn't realize my reply only went to Patrick the first time. Stupid phone email client. This may be the first one I miss since hellfire III. Something has come up, and I may have to skip it. Make sure you take lots of water and sunscreen. The environment out there is actively trying to kill you. Dan -- Sent from my Incredible. Pardon any mispelings or errors. ----- Reply message ----- From: "Joe Bauman" <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> Date: Sat, Jun 12, 2010 9:40 am Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Going to Hellfire 2010 To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Patrick, I always like Hellfire. Most likely I'll drive out there in the Saturn (don't want to get the Jeep all salty), and maybe Cory will go with me. Can you send out a reminder before it happens? Thanks, Joe --- On Sat, 6/12/10, Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com> wrote: From: Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Going to Hellfire 2010 To: "utah astronomy utah astronomy listserve" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010, 12:40 AM Anyone here going to Hellfire 2010? http://www.uroc.org/index.php?view=details&id=8%3Ahellfire-15-a-high-powere… http://tinyurl.com/25wpfc9 A few of us are are thinking of renting a car to get out there but if there's enough interest we could rent a van. patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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